Search: Advanced | Preference
Traveling Boy means the travel adventures of the Traveiling Boitanos
Travel adventures of Eric Anderson Boitano
Travel adventures of John Clayton
Travel adventures of Deb Roskamp
Travel adventures of Fyllis Hockman
Travel adventures of Brom Wikstrom
Travel adventures of Jim Friend
Travel adventures of Timothy Mattox
Travel adventures of Corinna Lothar
Travel adventures of Roger Fallihee
Travel adventures of Tamara Lelie
Travel adventures of Beverly Cohn
Travel adventures of Raoul Pascual
Travel adventures of Ringo Boitano
Travel adventures of Herb Chase
Travel adventures of Terry Cassel
Travel adventures of Dette Pascual
Travel adventures of Gary Singh
Travel adventures of John Blanchette
Travel adventures of Tom Weber
Travel adventures of James Thomas
Travel adventures of Richard Carroll
Travel adventures of Richard Frisbie
Travel adventures of Masada Siegel
Travel adventures of Greg Aragon
Travel adventures of Skip Kaltenheuser
Travel adventures of Ruth J. Katz
Travel adventures of Traveling Boy's guest contributors

Ketchikan Bed and Breakfast Service

Panguitch Utah, your destination for outdoor discovery

Alaska Sea Adventures - Alaska Yacht Charter and Cruises

Colorado ad

Sorrel ad

Polar Cruises ad


About James   write me    Feeds provide updated website content        

Moldova
The Last Place You’d Visit:
A Few Days in Europe’s
Least Visited Country
Story & photos by James Boitano

Chisinau panorama
Chişinău panorama from the Cosmos Hotel. Gritty,
but lots of fresh air

’m a biased traveler. Having fallen in love with Europe on my first trip to Italy with my father as a 14 year old, it is to this continent that my travel plans always seem to lead. I return to somewhere in Europe now every May to see old friends and favorite cities. But with each trip, I have a firm goal: to fit in at least one new country every year.

With 2016 being my 28th trip to Europe, I’m getting close to the bottom of my list of unvisited countries. And this brings me inevitably to Moldova.

Poor Moldova. Largely unknown, way out of the way and saddled with a dowdy unglamorous name, it’s Europe’s least visited and poorest country. On the International Monetary Fund’s ranking of GDP per capita, Moldova ranks a lowly 138th out of 186 countries, right between Nicaragua and India. Yes, India. And even I, the Europhile traveler have ignored it until now.

Chisinau street scene
Chişinău may not be Paris, but it is the Paris
of Moldova

Moldova is an unlikely little country. About the size of Maryland, its three-million people are tucked in a landlocked wedge of land between Romania and Ukraine; not exactly on the London, Paris, Rome circuit. The territory is a slice of land the Russians pried away from their many wars of territorial conquest from the Turks and then added it to Mother Russia. Largely Romanian speaking, it probably should have ended up as part of Romania, but under the Soviet Union it achieved full republic status.

Moldova didn’t have much to offer Russia other than their fantastic wines, but that was fine for Moldova as part the biggest empire on Earth. But when the Soviet Union fell apart, Moldova found itself one of the least likely and most hapless sovereign states in the world. With two civil wars, much civil unrest, a complete collapse of the economy, Moldova still stands 25-years later. With Romania and the European Union trying to pull them to the West, and Russia holding their energy bill and pulling them towards the East, they are in a state of constant conflict and schizophrenia.

Moldovan souvenirs
Moldovan souvenirs which demonstrate a bit of Soviet Nostalgia

But with all that said, I really enjoyed my little four-day visit there this May. I experienced four-days of fantastic food, warm people, hassle-free travel and some of the cheapest prices I have ever seen in all my travels. I jetted in to their nice new airport on Lufthansa from Munich and paid a staggeringly low $5.00 for my taxi ride to the capital. I bet you can’t name the capital of Moldova. That’s right, it’s Chişinău (formerly Kishinev under the Russians), but even geography pros have trouble with that one.

I stayed at the Cosmos Hotel. During the times of the Soviet Union, the capital of every Republic had a monstrously ugly hotel for foreign visitors on Intourist package tours. The Cosmos was just that place. And like nearly everything else in Moldova, it looks like nothing had been done to it since 1980. And yet, despite the dreadful décor and Stalinist era ambiance, my room was perfectly clean and comfortable, the staff (like everyone else in Moldova) was extremely kind and helpful. And four nights with a balcony and breakfast for a total of $120.00 was astonishingly cheap.

Arch de Triomph
Friendly Moldovans at their Arch de Triomph, in front of the parliament, proudly displaying their flag

Leading from the hotel is Chisinau’s main avenue on or near which its major attractions are all found: the national parliament, the vibrant market, their little arch de triomphe, the national museum, the orthodox cathedral, a bank, the post office, a café. I must have walked that street from my hotel 13 times in four days: not that it was so interesting, but because there wasn’t so much else to do.

Moldovan meal served with polenta and wine
A $5.00 lunch with the obligatory polenta and wine

But I wasn’t unhappy to find myself there. Every meal (served with polenta – their national staple and with wine – their national treasure) was better than most meals I ever find in America and rarely cost more than $5.00. People smiled at me kindly. I liked that. And despite an undeniable amount of grittiness, the plethora of lovely and vibrant parks gave the city a benevolent dignity.

Moldova has had hard times, but you wouldn’t know that on a Sunday afternoon strolling in one of their verdant parks. Each one was filled vibrantly with happy families and children, laughing on kiddie rides, eating ice cream and cotton candy, smartly dressed, and looking happy. The measure of a country is more in its people and less in its GDP. How do they rise to hard times and still seem so happy, so together and connected. Maybe there is something to learn from them and that’s the real glory of travel. So I’m quite pleased I went to Moldova and not just to tick off another country off my list. I’m glad I met these fine Moldovans with their kind and resilient spirit. I don’t’ regret for a minute the four tranquil days I spent among them.

So now, how in the world will I ever make it to Belarus?

Related Articles:
Romania: More Than Vamping through Transylvania; Backdoor to Europe: Smart & Stylish Slovenia; Moscow, St. Petersburg: A Tale of Two Cities; The Balkans: Lovely States of Mind and Meanderings...


Name: Required
E-mail: Required
City: Required
Feedback:
 

Nice article (on Iceland). And by the other feedback, I see that others recognize you as a Eurovision expert as well. Perhaps Traveling Boy readers would enjoy your Eurovision/Iceland profile in New Geysir (it's called Can Music Save Iceland): http://www.icelandseattle.com/images/December_Final_Printers_Proof.pdf

Kelly
Seattle, WA

James,

Enjoyed your Eurovision article. I had read a bit about it in the past, but this filled in a couple of holes. I'm still a little confused, though, about a couple of things. I recently saw Celine Dion in Vegas, and know she is from (as you mentioned in your article) Quebec. Yet she was hired by Switzerland to sing. Can any nation hire anyone from another nation to represent their country, even though it is not a European nation? Also, I read that Israel is one of the countries that participates, yet they are certainly NOT in Europe. Can you explain?

Barry Garcia
San Diego, CA

* * * * *

Hi Barry,

Thanks so much for your feedback and for reading my article. And thanks for taking the time to write me.

Very very good questions.

The rules state that 'each nation's television station will select a 3 minute, original song to represent their country. There is no rules stating that the singer, the song writer or the lyricist have to actually be from that country. Small countries especially sometimes hire more popular singers to represent them and we have even sing the same artist sing for 3 different countries. An American friend of mine wrote this year's Czech entry.

As for participating countries, Eurovision is organized by the European Broadcasting Union which is sort of a pan-European broadcaster. Any country that is a member can take part. It just so happens that a lot of countries around the Mediterranean also belong, even though they are not in Europe. Israel is one of them. Morocco once took part too. I asked that very same question to a member of the Israeli delegation once and they were really offended. Australia is also a member too and they broadcast it every year. Technically they could participate too, but given that it's a live event they have never elected to do so.

Here is a link of our lovely Celine back in 1988, before her makeover and any of her English hits (at the next year's contest in Switzerland she debuted her first English language hit 'Where does my heart beat now' as part of the opening of that year's contest (but not as a participant).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pEYw8PcBas&feature=related

And here is the very exciting voting showing her win. One of the best ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNu-yXv6J5U

Best regards,
James


© TravelingBoy.com. All Rights Reserved. 2015.
This site is designed and maintained by WYNK Marketing. Send all technical issues to: support@wynkmarketing.com
Friendly Planet Travel

Lovin Life After 50

Big Sur ad

Tara Tours ad

Alaska Cruises & Vacations ad

Cruise One ad